|
|
|
Are You Afraid of Dying? (Continued)
You
see, when God looked down from the
balconies of heaven, He saw a world in need. If the world had needed a
doctor,
He would have sent one. If the world had needed a lawyer, He would have
sent
one. If the world had needed an engineer, He would have sent one. If
the world
had needed a super-hero, He would have sent one. But what the world
really
needed was a Savior, a person who can redeem people from their sins.
And that
is why God had to send His only Son to die on the cross for our sins. Sin
is very much like the deadly
germs/microbes that I had mentioned in one of the sections above. Some
examples
of sin would be telling lies, stealing, murdering and having lustful
desires.
Simply because certain sins are invisible, intangible and
non-quantifiable, it
cannot be ignored as harmless. Rather it can have deadly consequences. Jesus
came to conquer sin and only way
to do that is through the shedding of sinless blood. His blood was
sinless as
he never sinned. So He had to lay His life down for each and every one
of us.
There is no free lunch, somebody has to pay the price and Jesus chose
to. The
Bible says that the wages (consequences) of sin is death, but the gift
of God is
eternal life
in Christ Jesus. So
what is sin? Well, there are many
dictionary definitions for sin, but putting it in simple words, sin is
missing
the mark. If you will have to leap and cross a pit, you will have to
leap
across the full breadth of the pit. Even if you miss it by one foot,
you are
going under and have missed the mark. When
He hung on the cross, all of our
sins were laid on Him. Let me now answer the question my friends asked.
For the
sinful thoughts we think in our minds, His head was pierced with a
crown of
thorns. For the wrong things we do with our hands, His hands were
nailed to the
cross. For the wrong places we go to, His legs were nailed. In fact,
when He
was on the cross, He was thinking about you and me. Dear reader, Jesus
loves
you so much that even if you were the only person on Earth who ever
sinned, He
would have still taken the path of the cross and died just
for you. It
is impossible to explain with words the full extent of the depth and
the width
and the height of His love. Frequently
Asked Questions Is
Heaven Real?
On
the 18th of February 2006, my
brother-in-law (my cousin sister’s husband) passed away. I went to the
funeral
service the next day, and to my amazement, I saw his eleven-year-old
daughter
Pearly, running around and playing catching game with her friends.
Initially I
thought the girl is too young to comprehend what has happened. Later I
came to
realize that Pearly had an angelic encounter the night before her
father
stepped into eternity in heaven. The angels began singing to her and
told her
that they are going to take him home (heaven) the next day and that she
needn’t
worry. It was this angelic assurance that gave her comfort. Don
Piper, in his book "90 Minutes in Heaven", shares about his visit to
heaven after he died of a car accident on January 18, 1989 and had an
out-of-body experience. Don Piper says that with earthly terms it is
not possible to adequately describe the full extent of the warmth,
excitement, happiness and joy he felt in heaven. His eyes had never
feasted on such beauty before. And most importantly, he was able to see
his loved ones again (the ones who had a relationship with
Jesus). Heaven is a place where there will be no more pain or death or crying or diseases or bidding farewell to anyone. It is a place of reunion. Personally, I look forward to the day when I am going to meet my grandmother and other loved ones again. Is
Hell Real?
As
real and wonderful as heaven is, so real is hell as well! In his book
"23 Minutes in Hell”, Bill Wiese describes about his visit to hell,
after he died on November 23, 1998 and had an out-of-body experience.
The first thing that Bill Wiese noticed was the extreme temperature. It
was so hot that there was no possibility of sustaining any life.
Despite the intense heat, the flesh does not disintegrate. There was a
constant sense of hopelessness, fear and total isolation from people.
There is no place to get a nap and nothing to drink. The intense heat,
foul smell and the constant screaming never stops. Hell
is a place of everlasting
destruction, torment, fire, darkness, punishment, chains and weeping
and gnashing
of teeth. The other day I saw a young person wearing a T-shirt that
read, “If
they don’t serve Bacardi in heaven, I don’t want to go there”. Many
people take
the concept of hell very loosely, not understanding what it really is. Does
God Answer Prayers?
It
was early 2011. I was working with a
company which was located not more than 3 km from my home. So generally
I would
wake up at around 7 or 7:30 AM. It was pretty late in the night and I
had just
finished praying to God. As I was about to walk out of the room, I
prayed this
simple prayer, “Father wake me up early in the morning so I can seek
Your
face”. The next day morning I woke up and was looking at the clock. It
was not
4:59 or was it 5:01 AM, but it was 5:00 AM on the dot. I sat on the bed
in awe
of God. Guess who woke me up? The
Bible says in Jeremiah 33:3, (NASB)
“Call
to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty
things, which
you do not know.” It’s not that He may answer, but He will answer. Well,
I can use all the powerful words
in the English language and try to explain Jesus’ love, but might not
be able
to drive across the point. It’s like trying to explain the taste of ice
cream;
I can use all the adjectives I want to describe it, but it’s of no use
until
and unless you taste the ice cream for yourself. The Bible says, “Taste
and see
that the Lord is good”. Does
the Bible Have the Power to
Change/Transform Lives?
This
is a true story of a person named
Antonio who lived in Brazil. Antonio had boarded a bus to reach a
certain
place. As Antonio was boarding the bus through the front door, the
driver
noticed that there was something wrong with Antonio as he was wearing a
worried
face. So the driver handed him a Bible. Many months later, through a
strange
coincidence the both of them happened to meet again. Antonio thanked
the driver
for the Bible and told him how it had saved two lives that day. On the
day
Antonio boarded the bus, he had in mind to kill his friend who betrayed
him and
then take his own life by committing suicide. After reading through the
pages
of the Bible, Antonio decided to forgive his friend and found peace
with God.
Two lives were saved that day by a very powerful book, the Bible. Not only does the Bible have the power to change individuals, it also has the power to change an entire city, as in the case of Almolonga – a city in Guatemala. For many hundreds of years the residents of this city practiced idolatry and witchcraft. Men were generally drunken, wife-beaters, unruly, living barely for their next drink. The 4 jails were so packed that inmates had to be sent to a neighboring city’s jail. When people started embracing the teachings of Jesus, the city took a turn-around. In a city that had 36 bars, now has only 3 bars. Crime rates had dropped so much as a result of which the jails were closed. People began to work and God blessed their land. Agricultural productivity in Almolonga had increased by 1,000 percent. Rather than 4 truckloads a month, the city now exports 40 truckloads of vegetables every week, with carrots the size of a person’s forearm. Page 1 2 3 |
|
 Copyright © 2012 Articles on Life |